Google pays $3.2 Billion to Live in Your Thermostat

Google’s move to dominate the world is slowly and steadily happening as the company snaps up Nest for $3.2 billion.

Its not enough that Google wants to rule the internet, but now it wants to move into your phone, your car and now, your home with the purchase of Nest Labs, an internet connected thermostat and smoke alarm.

Nest Labs was started back in 2010 by Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, both of whom were involved in the making of the iPhone and iPod. The start-up raised $180 million from investors and became very popular. Just last year, it was valued at $2 billion.

The company, now owned by Google, offers users complete control over the temperature in their homes and any smoke alarm activity all through an app. It is also intelligent enough to know when people wake up, leave and return home and can adjust temperatures accordingly.

More and more, internet companies are trying to tap into the “gateway” in which people live in an effort to understand them better and therefore market to them better.

“Google likes to know everything they can about us, so I suppose devices that are monitoring what’s going on in our homes is another excellent way for them to gather that information,” said Danny Sullivan, a longtime Google analyst.

Fadell, who sold the company to Google said that he was aware “of concerns among customers about Google having so much data about people” but it seems that $3.2 billion was just too good of an offer to refuse. Reassuringly however, Fadell also added that Nests privacy policies are still going to be well respected.